Thursday, February 19, 2009

FAQ : Why CXF implements JAXRS

A number of people have asked us why, or why, do we spend the time on implementing JAXRS in CXF, despite the brilliance of existing third-party implementations, with all the resources and big names support behind them.

The answer is quite simple actually. We're not hell-bent on trying to emulate what others have done, nor are we into some kind of JAXRS 'battle' - not yet anyway. We aim for a 'simpler' goal which is to make sure CXF is seen as the best of breeds platform for developers writing web services. We won't tell them they have to write REST services - we'll trust their choice and ensure CXF will handle most demanding requirements, whether it SOAP, REST or both.

CXF is being recognized now as a top platform for writing SOAP services - highly optimized, tried and tested. There were times it was beginning its life with writing JAXWS from scratch and people, myself including were asking why. It was quite a bit of time ago though, and no one asks such questions any more. CXF JAXWS is just going to get stronger, it' s happening every day. IONA trusted in those few involved in the early CXF work to pull it off and that trust payed off.

So here we're, tinkering with the CXF JAXRS implementation. Odds are not that terrific for now but we'll persevere and see what happens. We continue trust in our experience and we'll get to the final destination eventually. And when we do we won't mind if a fledgling CXF JAXRS will get off the ground on its own...

The bottom line is that we do see JAXRS as a very important technology for CXF. CXF is not a pure SOAP stack anymore. It's a progressive framework where all sorts of services will coexist.